The Third Slip: Issue 201 - This is an internal issue
by Chuck & Tony
Hello, Slippers! Welcome to The Third Slip - the fortnightly newsletter that’s like a 5km run after a year of lockdown. We thought we could just get up and run the distance easily after a fortnight, but it’s taken way more time and we don’t have time to get into intro jokes and all. On our marks, get set, go...
Farmers’ Protest
Previously on the Republic Day Charade: When we last left you, a tractor rally was planned in Delhi on 26th January. Well, that escalated quickly...
Obviously “Khalistani terrorists” was trending. Add the Delhi Police and some idiots from both sides to the mix and predictable violence followed and the farmers seemed to have lost public support leaving the government to step in and end the protests. But then, a heady few days followed - ex-BJP fan Rakesh Tikait showed support for farmers in an emotional video which made some farmers come back. Then came the controversy over a death and that’s when things truly took a turn. Delhi police insist the tractor turned turtle, while some farmers and a doctor alleged that he was shot - Rajdeep Sardesai and Shashi Tharoor have FIRs against their names for propounding the latter theory.
Concrete Steps: Meanwhile, our extremely secure government asked Twitter to block some accounts (outrage from left), and then Twitter brought them back (outrage from right). Then, the government - to show critics it was not slow at infra - built massive barricades almost overnight to prevent protestors and journalists from coming in. Protesting farmers are shocked.
Stray-sand Effect: Putting the Barb in Barbara
The Stray-sand effect, (occasionally referred to as the Barbara Streisand Effect like some cricket snobs refer to a Five-For as a Michelle Pfeiffer), is the phenomenon wherein a complaint of “Waiter there is a grain of stray sand in my dish” is met with unnecessary resistance by a restaurateur. Instead of politely replacing the dish, he then proceeds to take all his guests into the kitchen to show them how pristine his operation is only for his guests to be horrified at the filth and mess and they run out screaming and write bad reviews on several platforms thus leaving the restaurateur drowning in a bowl of soup that’s too big and too hot.
Something similar happened in India this week where Rihanna made a 6 word tweet that shook the chefs at Taste of India. This was followed by tweets from Greta Thunberg amongst others and the MEA decided to go into overdrive with a centre-aligned clarification that only made things much worse.
Getting out of your Bubble Baat
Illustration by Harini Kannan
Quo vadis? Cowardice: But, that was only the first course - the amuse douche - if you will. The powers that be followed it up with coordinated tweets from all childhood heroes to show that we are a strong nation that does not overreact. We’re not sure what the Minimum Support Price is to tweet for “sovereignty of India” “India against propaganda”
The fortnight began with the tractor rally and at the time of writing, Republic TV is trending a hashtag to show the nation is indeed with Sachin. Meanwhile some Malayalee chettanmar flooded Maria Sharapova’s timeline with apologies for trolling her a few years ago for not knowing who Sachin was, saying they wished they didn’t know him either. Superpower by 2020, indeed. Oh, and farmers are still f*cked but hey we showed those bold women, eh? Finally, here is P. Sainath properly scolding all concerned.
Budget
Like a class XI student who confidently keeps submitting the record book week on week without entering anything in it and hoping for a massive flood to destroy all record books before the teacher checks it and lucks out, the Indian government has decided to come clean and say that the fiscal deficit is actually not 3% but 9% in the backdrop of Covid19 although that has nothing to do with it. Even before the budget, one of India’s most respected (meaning anti-national) economists says the state of the economy is far worse than the government says, in an interview to Karan Thapar. The only thing surprising here is how shocked Thapar looks.
Markedt improvement: But, the markets took a plunge and then came up like crazy meaning the budget itself must have been good no? Well yeah, some good things: Lots of spends on health, infrastructure, security for gig workers, Swachh Bharat, divesting PSUs. But of course, bad things as well. The government indulged in its primary skill of creative math (new healthcare spends are actually lower than the last year) and the spendthrifty nature of the budget might be a bad thing in the long term. The informal economy (y’know, what most of the country does) and social sector are ignored again, as are startups being ignored (even Mohandas Pai says so). As always, The Ken’s Nutgraf outstandingly dissects it.
Bail puri
This fortnight, the Supreme Court made the right sounds, thankfully. Saying that stopping hate on TV is essential, and granting Munawar bail and immunity from arrest - for a joke he didn’t make. A Kerala prof booked under UAPA was granted bail by SC, raising some hopes. Meanwhile, a 23-year-old Dalit activist continues to face torture in custody. Also still in Jail - Umar Khalid, Siddique Kappan, Sharjeel Imam… And we wonder why more people don’t speak up.
Other things in India
Roadrunner: Finally, Suddenly the BJP is paying special attention to Kerala, building highways and erasing fiscal deficit and… Aw, that’s nice, maybe we misunders… Oh, elections are coming is it. The coyote's after you.
Data hai to de varna kat le: 4G restored in J&K after 18 months, which is good news. What is bad news is how part of that internet is going to be used - J&K police are recruiting cyber-volunteers to scour social media for anti-national posts. Librandus - be careful what you ask for. (BTW, Kashmir lost something this week - the RTI law)
University Grant: Universities need government approval for online events on India’s internal affairs
No Andaman is an island: Financial complex in the Andamans? Oh boy
Ad nauseam: BARC has lost its bite surely and needs an overhaul
A glacier has burst in Uttarakhand claiming multiple lives. This is a developing tragedy :(
Oh yeah that virus thing
Shooting our shot: Some good news here, actually. Sure, the world has crossed 100m cases, but the number of vaccinated has crossed that. Amazing. China has committed vaccine aid to low-income countries, and the COVAX alliance is stepping up, too. Russia’s vaccine is thankfully effective and safe. Most vaccines seem to work against the new variants. Even the IMF predicts good things. So… Yay?
EU too brutal: But bad stuff is happening too. Unexpectedly, the EU is fumbling its rollout, and they were supposed to be the most sorted place on the planet. A German minister called the effort “really shit” and Britain (which, kudos to the Johnson government, has done a great job vaccinating) is laughing, some saying the EU fumble is “best advertisement for Brexit”)
BTW
Let's give it a shot?: “Got vaccinated” is the latest Tinder bio flex. (Should we have gone with Jab we met?)
First World Third World Problems: If poor countries don’t get vaccinated, rich countries will suffer, too.
Longing for you: Like the occasional memory of an ex during Valentine’s week, it seems that covid does not necessarily end in 14 days. We’re just beginning to understand Long COVID.
Masking/Unmasking: Indian serosurvey shows ~20% of the country is infected with Covid meaning reassuring graphs aside, the virus is still out there. Stay safe.
USA
Basic Instinct: So, Biden’s had a frantic fortnight, mostly pressing Ctrl+Z on what his predecessor’s done. So there was executive action around climate change, racial inequality, allowing transgenders to serve in the military again, reuniting families at the border, accepting more refugees, extending a nuclear arms control treaty with Russia, ending support for the Saudis’ murderous ways in Yemen… Basically doing very basic things to try and restore some basic commonsense. Phew!
QAnonball: Meanwhile after a big ugly splash in a pool by a juvenile boy, the Republican party seems to be in turmoil, torn between QAnon-spouting loonies in its party and wondering what to do with those who had the temerity to vote to impeach Trump.
Other things happening around the world
Reset the coup coup clock: Myanmar witnessed a coup by the military, again! And Aung San Suu Kyi is being charged for importing - get this - illegal walkie-talkies. Yup. Not genocide. And apparently she was more anti-Rohingya than the military itself. So… Is this good news? Well, definitely not for the concept of democracy or for the people of Myanmar in general. China’s state media meanwhile hilariously calls the whole thing a “cabinet reshuffle”.
Consolation Prize: Hong Kong Protests have been nominated by US lawmakers for Nobel Peace Prize. Speaking of which, Britain opened up citizenship for HKers fleeing the now China-controlled place.
(What would Mr Spooner call Gul Panag?) Pan Gulag: Speaking of protests, there are fresh ones in Russia, with Putin’s rival Navalny (who was poisoned, remember?) jailed for ~3 years. His ally was playing Beethoven and continued to do so, as the cops came to arrest her. Putin’s approval drops ever so slightly, especially among the youth.
Moral victory: In responsible capitalism, companies are paying more attention to ESG goals, even trying to standardize them. In another move that sent shockwaves through the auto industry, General Motors said they would go all-electric by 2035. All this will be needed - The planet lost 1.2 trillion tons (!) of ice last year. This is like that time when school teachers decided that marks in “Moral Science” will also count in the analysis for proficiency prize.
Don’t say a word about Poland: Abortion was banned in Poland, leading to protests, while Thailand okays it till 12 weeks. This was a War no one Saw coming.
Jumping through the five hoops: As if the Olympics needed more controversy - we’re still not sure if the Tokyo Summer games are going ahead, while its chief went and made sexist remarks, and as a bonus, 180+ human rights groups have called for a boycott of next year’s Winter Games in… You guessed it - China.
Brown Shorts: Not a reference to fascists, but probably what happens when Wall Street giants shit their pants when amateur anti-establishment investors enter the market, coordinate using Reddit threads and buy en masse via a “steal from the rich and give to the poor” platform, and short squeeze them, making them go AAAAAAAARGGGHHHHH! GameStop has had a crazy couple of weeks.
Yet another illustration by Harini Kannan
Tech it & go
Of bill and gates: In the US, Sen. Amy Klobuchar has introduced a sweeping anti-trust bill, updated for Big Tech. Breakups coming soon? Who knows. Lots of lawyers? Pakka.
Peeling the union: Tech is seeing a push for labour unions. How annoying for the upper management and shareholders!
Like a broken reco: Facebook said it will stop recommending political groups to users. Thanks for thinking of this bright idea around 8 years too late, Zucko. BTW, Facebook’s “other” revenue category, which includes hardware efforts like Oculus, was up 156 percent yoy. yay.
Head in the Cloud: Jeffrey Bezos is going to step down as Amazon CEO, while head of Amazon Web Services, Andy Jassy, will take his place. And by the looks of things, he’ll continue what his boss started. The joke now is that Bezos becomes the first Amazon employee to ever get a break.
Adarsh Palak: In case you’re wondering what kind of science is getting funding these days - Spinach can now send emails.
LinkedOut: Some great reads we came across this fortnight
Might the whole farmer thing affect the BJP’s prospect? Probably. (link)
It’s been a decade since the Arab Spring. A good summary on why those dreams of democracy never came to fruition (link)
How China has contained criticism of the virus (link)
A sobering piece on why China will continue to be important on the world stage despite all attempts. TL;Dr: Economics (link)
Modi’s success owes itself to selling a vision. His fans lap it up. (link)
Related - why the Left has failed in India. Wait what, I thought TTS had good open rates (link)
The feeling of losing control is driving homegrown authoritarianism. (link)
In case you needed it, another fun read about the Twitter outrage du fortnight and why @jack is likely to give nary a fvck. (link)
So much for our role models, eh?
Democracy around the world has slid in 2020. Here’s a nice analysis why.
Non-politics
An interesting read about cricket bats, logos and manufacturers (link)
A non-profit in Bangalore turns scrap into playgrounds! (link)
14 untranslatable-to-English words (link). The authors would add the Malayalam ethramathe / Tamil ethanavathu which can at best be translated as whichth (Whichth century of Sachin’s was the Sharjah 143? / Whichth edition of TTS was the best?)
Jeff Bezos’ going-away letter to Amazon employees. Read for academic interest more than inspiration though, there’s plenty wrong with the guy which reflects in Amazon’s ruthless culture. (link)
Lower aerosol pollution ends up warming the planet. Dei. (link)
Roche will be using quantum computing for drug discovery! Science, b**ches.
Scientists want to turn masks into roads. No, seriously, science, b**ches! (link)
Phew! That’s all for this fortnight. Say hello to the authors on Instagram (Chuck | Tony), Twitter (Chuck | Tony), or by replying to this email. Until next week, may your unanswered email/message from 7 months ago receive an unexpected positive response. Bye!